Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-02-26
md some have ghosts. Au revoir."

never be lifted. with heaVy heart
and feet / passed through the bosky
grove to my once happy home.
1 had not been there half an hour
when Belle arrived. She had come
by the morning train, and had moth
ing with her but little handbag. I
looked at her in establishment.
INFATUATED girl" / cried, "could
you not stay away from here three
days?"
II am glad you said that" she
answered, taking a seat, "for now l
think am right in suspecting what
was on your mind. l ran away from
Madeline to see if 1 could find out
what was at the bottom of this dread
full trouble between you. She told
me what you said, and l don't be-
lieve you ever used those words to
Pegram, And now / want to ask
you one question. Had !, in any
way, anything to do with this?n
"No," said L, "Notdirectly." And
then emboldened by circumstances, /
added: "But that secret visitor or
friend of yours had much to do with
it,"
81 thought that might be So" she
answered, "and now, George, l want
to tell you something, l am afraid it
will shock you very much" W.
81 have had so much to shock me
lately that I can stand almost any
thing now" -
"Well then, it is this" she said.
"That person whom saw sometimes
and whom you once found under my
window, is ghost"
"Did you know that" I cried. 81
knew it was a ghost, but did moi
imagine that you had any suspicion
of it."
"Why, yes" she answered, ~ saw
through him almost from the very
first. / was a good deal startled, anC
a little frightened when found il
out, but l soon felt that this ghos
couldn't do me any harm, and you
don't know how amusing it was.
always had fancy for ghosts, but
never expected to meet with one lik'
this"
Sand so you knew all the time i
wasn't real man," / exclaimed still
filled with establishment at what
| had heard. rn ~BaamHm
| ''A real man!n cried Belle, will
| considerable contempt in her tones
"Do you suppose I would become &C
quainted in that way with rea
man, and let him come under m.
window and talk to me? / was de
termined not to tell any of you abou
it, for l knew you wouldn't approx
of it, and would break up the ful
some way. Now wish most hearti
ly that 1 had spoken of it,"
eyes," I answered, cit might hav
saved much trouble"
"But, oh! George" she continued
"you've no idea how funny it was
Such ridiculous, self-conceited, ole
| fashioned ghost of beauw
eyes," said I, "when it was aliv
it courted your grandmother"
"Theimpudence Proclaimed Belle
"And to think that it supposed that
imagined it to be real man! Why
one day, when it was talking to m
| it stepped back into rose bush an
| stood there ever so long, all mike
$ up with the roses and leaves"
"And you knew it all the time?
4 These words were spoken in no
g low voice by some one near us. Turl
!. ing quickly, we saw the ghost
: Buck Edwards; but no longer II
d jaunty specter we had seen befor
y His hat was on the back of his heat
his knees were turned inward, h
e shoulders dropped, his head hung, an
his arms dangled limp at his side
: eyes," said Belle, "I knew it a
the time"
e The ghost looked at her with
o faded, misty eye; and then, instes
y of vanishing briskly as was his won
3. he began slowly and irresolutely
r disappear. First his body faded fro
view, then his head, leaving his h
y and boots. These gradually wants
'e ed, and the last thing we saw of Il
% once Buck Edwards was a dissolvil
y view of the tip-end of a limp al
" dropping riding whip.
Of "He is gone,n said Belle. "We
st never see him again."
If eyes," said ], she gone. I THU
1t your discovery of his real nature h
'r completely broken up that pro,